falls into three divisions.  The first introduces the Chorus of Argive elders, Clytemnestra, and a Herald who tells of the hardships of the siege and of the calamitous return, and ends with the triumphal entrance of Agamemnon with Cassandra, and his welcome by the Queen; the second comprehends the prophecy of the frenzied Cassandra of the doom about to fall upon the house and the murder of the King; the third the conflict between the Chorus, still faithful to the murdered King, and Clytemnestra, beside whom stands her paramour Aegisthus.

Interest centres in Clytemnestra.  Crafty, unscrupulous, resolute, remorseless, she veils her deadly hatred for her lord, and welcomes him home in tender speech:—­

     “So now, dear lord, I bid thee welcome home—­
     True as the faithful watchdog of the fold,
     Strong as the mainstay of the laboring bark,
     Stately as column, fond as only child,
     Dear as the land to shipwrecked mariner,
     Bright as fair sunshine after winter’s storms,
     Sweet as fresh fount to thirsty wanderer—­
     All this, and more, thou art, dear love, to me.”

Agamemnon passes within the palace; she slays him in his bath, enmeshed in a net, and then, reappearing, vaunts her bloody deed: 

     “I smote him, and he bellowed; and again
     I smote, and with a groan his knees gave way;
     And as he fell before me, with a third
     And last libation from the deadly mace,
     I pledged the crowning draught to Hades due,
     That subterranean Saviour—­of the dead! 
     At which he spouted up the Ghost in such
     A flood of purple as, bespattered with,
     No less did I rejoice than the green ear
     Rejoices in the largesse of the skies
     That fleeting Iris follows as it flies.”

Aeschylus departs from the Homeric account, which was followed by other poets, in making the action of the next play, the ‘Choephori,’ follow closer upon that of the ‘Agamemnon.’  Orestes has heard in Phocis of his father’s murder, and returns in secret, with his friend Pylades, to exact vengeance.  The scene is still Argos, but Agamemnon’s tomb is now seen in front of the palace.  The Chorus consists of captive women, who aid and abet the attempt.  The play sets forth the recognition of Orestes by Electra; the plot by which Orestes gains admission to the palace; the deceit of the old Nurse, a homely but capital character, by whom Aegisthus is induced to come to the palace without armed attendants; the death of Aegisthus and Clytemnestra; the appearance of the avenging Furies; and the flight of Orestes.

The last play of the trilogy, the ‘Eumenides,’ has many singular features.  The Chorus of Furies seemed even to the ancients to be a weird and terrible invention; the scene of the play shifts from Delphi to Athens; the poet introduces into the play a trial scene; and he had in it a distinct political purpose, whose development occupies one-half of the drama.